Poll: In defence of Jim Sterling

[chronobreak]

I gotta say, I'm glad he took the Escapist's audience opinion about his videos and tried to work harder to make them better. Besides that, I feel he is kind of unprofessional and I don't enjoy his writing. I guess I'm just sick of these gimmicky reviewers, with most of them being angry and cursing, trying to present some sort of "everyman" facade to garner an audience, but if every man can do what they do, why listen to them?

He is a good editor for D-toid, but when he jumps in the comments sections talking to their community he seems to have a penchant for having a bad attitude towards the site users that disagree with him and can often be quite rude to the readers. It is unacceptable behavior for a grown man.

 

[Savagezion]

Yeah, he isn't funny. Hyperbole can be funny but in small quips worth of content, not 5 straight minutes of it, then its just annoying as at that point it just becomes overreacting. This goes against sarcasm at this length. This is like me finding Fran Drescher annoying and then proceeding to make a show where I act like her being as annoying as I can about it every week. At that point, I have stepped out of sarcasm and straight into pathetic douchebaggery. I am now imitating things I find annoying and want to go away ironically. I think there is less sarcasm in his videos than people claim. This all stems from something. But either way, he is either a pathetic douchebag with nothing of real value to say or a whiny fanboy.

He makes one point per video and instead of properly supporting it, he just rambles into hyperbolic statements with no backing of his original point. (i.e. fanboy or douchebag mocking fanboys - you make the call.) I don't waste my time on him. Apparently, though some people here think that I should devote time to making a mock show of him because it would be great. I'll pass and just go on about my life instead though. My life has reached that kind of low yet.

 

[Azure-Supernova]

He isn't always like that though, he often makes a hell of a lot more sense...


He's a bit like Marmite.

 

[ChromeAlchemist]

I loved him on Destructoid (him and Podtoid were two of the only reasons why I went on that site) and I think his humour can be hit and miss at times, but mostly hit. He's fucking hilarious on podtoid and most of the time on the Jimquisition.

Basically, you'll warm up to him, and I was surprised when I saw him here, as his delivery is very different to everything else here. Now all this site needed was Anthony Burch's Rev Rants, and The Escapist would literally be the galactic empire of video game sites.

 

[lacktheknack]

Let me tell you why I dislike him: The description from his first video!

Let gaming's biggest douchebag explain to you how games aren't films, films aren't games, and David Cage will never be a moviemaker.

Way to sell yourself, man. At least Yahtzee is becoming LESS of a douche as time goes on, and accompanies it with great gags and fun animation.

http://www.google.com/recaptcha/api/image?c=03AHJ_Vut37RMuPF9EvjD4L35BtQtyq7PVRTCFggKUM755PU4UNqy8wgz_AnueIcDU_sSVCvpOcJOspxxsOIzIpw8syLXX_XTDc3sEiM5AUl8tKHmRJlsarYXqU3ZhaV9-E0LfLtgQEhx2wwjvOQkmeXCf_R2_guDQdA

 

[Trolldor]

The guy is literally drenched in sarcasm and humor, so if you're easily offended or take a few things too seriously, he might be rough around the edges.

For example, many women hate him because he is sexist apparently, which is fine, we all are in someway, but he made fun of things when he wrote in his journal that certain 'figurines' must be bought because...well...they're sexy figurines.

If you read the journal entry carefully, you'll see that he was trolling and just being sarcastic, but stupidly enough, some people really pick up on that as being legit.

Drenched in humour?

No. Just no.

It's so utterly mediocre. It's not terrible, it's not insulting, and it is most definitely not funny. It's the kind of thing you shut off thirty seconds in because you have better things to waste your free time on. Like blinking rapidly at a light source and then looking away.

 

[Moonlight Butterfly]

It's not really what he says that annoys people it's his presentation. He seems to get a bit overexcited and repeat himself alot. It kind of comes across as a rant the way he says it. Perhaps video is not the best medium for him.

He also needs a better artist or just get rid of it altogether.

edit: Just seen someone post that said he was sexist I don't know I kind of expected that and didn't watch his video on women in videogames becuase I fully expected it to rile me up somehow.

 

[captaincabbage]

I think what he is doing, which is playing up a egotistical douche, which I reckon he's doing for the laughs is just alienating his audience, since egotistical douchebags tend to rub people up the wrong way.

 

[YouEatLard]

He isn't always like that though, he often makes a hell of a lot more sense...


He's a bit like Marmite.

Ok. You got me. This is actually... fairly good. If the others were this solid I would give him a thumbs up.

At the same time, it's worth mentioning that nothing he's done for the Escapist is of this caliber.

This probably should've been shown in the first or second post.

 

[Farseer Lolotea]

On the other hand, I do have a problem with his sexism and outright misogyny, and I don't think that that is defensible, even as "humour" or "satire". (I really don't want to rehash those arguments here, you can see my--and others'--comments on his second video.)

So while Sterling's show does have potential in other respects (his most recent two videos are at least passable, and some other things I have seen of him are rather good), I'm not convinced that he won't pull some more sexist bullshit, as he has done in the past.

Pretty much this. Accuse people of being over-sensitive, too easily offended, or whatever all you like; the fact remains that someone took a cheap shot at him, and he got incredibly rabid in response.

Yes, she was out of line. But his response was disproportionate and...well, spoke volumes. And it wasn't even under circumstances in which he could fob it off as an attempt at humor.

 

[SL33TBL1ND]

I just found him really dull.

 

[Windcaler]

I have not watched "What Ive done" at all, didnt even know it existed till now. However that doesnt change the fact that I judge whether something is worthwhile or not on its own merits. Granted I only watched the first two of his shows and I found them both very lacking so I stopped watching. I do not feel the need to watch newer ones either. I gave him two weeks to keep me interested but instead I got a very bland show that IMO was not insightful, intelligent, or interesting. He did make valid points in those shows but thats really it. There was nothing for me to enjoy and no reason for me to keep watching

If you enjoy Jim's show then hey Im happy for you but its just not for me

 

[Gamer_152]

I don't think most people outside Destructoid were going to receive him well, let alone the Escapist, but I think he has a good show on the site. I don't find his stuff as insightful as a lot of the other Escapist content is and his style of humour isn't an exact fit for me (I certainly think it could benefit from being rid of those Microsoft Paint cartoons) but I understand that the man is being satirical in a lot of what he does and I think his show is entertaining.